The Little Ripley Day Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The caring staff greet children warmly on arrival at this welcoming setting. Children separate easily from their parents and quickly and happily settle into the daily routine. Staff nurture children through consistently warm interactions. These positive relationships support children's personal well-being and emotional security.

Leaders and staff provide a wide range of resources and learning experiences for children to enjoy. This effectively supports children's development in all areas of learning and helps to prepare them for the next stage of their learning, including the move to school. For example, staff enable children to develop their mathematical understanding. Younger children enjoy stacking objects and playing with shapes. Staff model language as they talk about the shapes and model counting as children add bricks to a tower.

Staff teach children to recognise their emotions in age-appropriate ways. For example, in pre-school, children use the 'Monster Wall' to link their feelings to different colours. Staff support children to develop their concentration and resilience. Leaders provide children with regular outings in the local community. Staff ensure that children are given clear messages, such as using pedestrian crossings to cross the road safely. Staff also provide experiences that teach children about different cultures and religions. For example, they learn about different celebrations, such as Diwali and Christmas. This supports children's understanding of the world and prepares them well for later life.

What does the early years setting do well and what does it need to do better?

• Staff engage in constant dialogue with children. They narrate play and respond to children, modelling language well. Staff encourage children to express their thoughts and ideas and to use new words. They engage children in songs and stories, asking children questions and ensuring they have enough time to consider their responses. Staff make effective use of strategies, such as actions or objects of reference, to support early language development. They support all children to develop their communication and language skills effectively.
• Staff understand how young children develop and learn. They explain how the learning activities and experiences they provide meet the needs of individual children. Leaders monitor staff practice regularly and give them feedback to improve their teaching. However, this is not fully effective in helping all staff to provide consistently high-quality interactions to help all children to make the best possible progress in their learning.
• Leaders and staff demonstrate a strong awareness of the importance of developing strong relationships with parents. They work hard to foster this. Staff gather information from parents about what children know and can do when they first start and use this to plan for learning. They understand the importance of assessing children's progress. Parents value the detailed feedback they receive about their children's development and the help and advice they receive from staff to further support learning at home.
• Staff ensure that children's individual care needs are met. They teach children about the importance of making healthy choices and practising good hygiene from a very early age. For example, babies' hands are washed before they eat. Staff talk about 'washing the germs away'. Staff give children consistent messages around healthy eating and drinking water throughout the day. They successfully encourage children to develop increasing independence in some aspects of self-care, such as toileting.
• The setting has a set of 'golden rules' in place. These outline clear expectations for children's behaviour, such as having 'kind hands'. These are realistic and appropriate to children's stages of development. Staff successfully encourage children to develop their concentration and resilience. For instance, very young children demonstrate high levels of concentration as they post shapes in the correct slots. However, they do not provide children with the highest level of challenge to help them to learn about managing their behaviour in different contexts, such as during child-initiated learning.
• The setting ensures that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are given the support they need. Staff understand how to support children with SEND and work closely with parents and other professionals. As a result, children with SEND make good progress.
• Leaders provide staff with training to deepen their professional knowledge and further improve their practice. They have been proactive in acting on recommendations from the last inspection report to further improve outcomes for children. They regularly engage with and support staff, including managing their workload and supporting well-being.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• extend the monitoring of teaching to identify where staff need further support to adapt their practice and extend children's learning even further
• provide children with further challenge to support them to understand about the expectations for their behaviour.